Claire Holt

Claire Holt's success in the teen fantasy realm in her native Australia was the perfect jumping off point to a promising career in America. She first made waves with a starring role on the hit series...
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This article contains massive spoilers from last night's The Vampire Diaries. Proceed with caution!
Like The Vampire Diaries we know and love, "Down the Rabbit Hole" had so many twists and gasp-inducing events that it felt like a season finale. But because of the sheer number of shocking moments, some extremely important revelations were overshadowed — namely, the fact that Tyler Lockwood left Mystic Falls (probably) for good.
While we'll all hold out hope that Michael Trevino's vampire/werewolf hybrid is just taking a couple of episodes off, this exit seems like the real deal. The saddest part — well, not the saddest but certainly pretty sh**ty — is that the whole "Jeremy's probably dead" thing totally eclipsed Tyler's departure. Sure, Tyler might still be alive, but he's still gone! Tyler's poignant, beautiful, tearjerking exit is all but forgotten in the harsh light of Jeremy's life-or-death cliffhanger.
That just doesn't seem fair, considering Tyler has been such a compelling character throughout the four seasons of TVD. In his honor, Hollywood.com compiled our favorite Tyler-centric moments from the previous three and a half seasons: Remember how he went from being a complete and total dick in Season 1 to a selfless, brave leader in Season 4? Thanks to Trevino's awesome performance, Tyler transformed into a different, better person, moreso than any other character (supernatural or otherwise) on the show.
So goodbye, Tyler Lockwood (and Michael Trevino), we will miss your leather jackets, bulging muscles, and beautiful face. Please hurry back to Mystic Falls ASAP and grace our TVs again! In your absence, we'll just rewatch all your shirtless scenes. No shame.
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Season 1: Tyler Sucks
Tyler was a huge dick at the beginning of the series. He was on the Mystic High football team, had a terrible relationship with his father, and didn’t have a decent bone in his body. He was exceedingly arrogant, selfish, mean, and a bully. He hooked up with his supposed best friend Matt’s sister, Vicki, for a while, and never treated her right. When Vicki began to hook up with Jeremy, Tyler wasn't exactly pleased. He and Jeremy ended up having a rivalry, first over Vicki, but then just because... you know, testosterone and stuff. They fought each other a lot, and when Jeremy tried to make peace after one awkward night when Tyler’s father tried to get them to fight to “get it out of their system,” Tyler lost his temper and punched Jeremy. When Jeremy asked him, “What the hell’s your problem?” we got our first hint that there was something else — something supernatural — going on with Tyler, as the camera panned up to a full moon.
Tyler’s friendship with Matt was never deep. They had grown up together, but even Matt got fed up with Tyler’s bad attitude. Things came to a head when Tyler met Matt’s mom, Kelly, at the Founder’s Day kick-off party, and they ended up getting drunk and making out. Matt saw them and promptly started beating up Tyler — their friendship was officially over.
In the Season 1 finale, when the vampire-crippling device was turned on, both Tyler and his father, Mayor Lockwood, were affected. This was our big money clue that there was something going on with the Lockwood family, but clearly even the Lockwoods didn’t know what that was. We saw a change in Tyler’s eyes when a light shined into them, so we knew he wasn’t completely human. Mayor Lockwood was killed along with the group of tomb vampires, prompting Tyler and his mother, Carol, to start mourning, and inspiring the first real change in Tyler’s character.
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Season 2: Tyler Joins Mystic Fall's Supernatural Club
Tyler reunited with his uncle, Mason, at his father's funeral. Later that evening, when Tyler threw a tantrum that frightened his mom, it took Mason's intervention to get him to calm down. Tyler was confused about why he behaved the way he did. Mason told him it was the Lockwood curse, but didn’t fully reveal what that meant yet.
Damon knew something was up with the Lockwood family, so he compelled a random man to pick a fight with Mason. Both Damon and Tyler witnessed Mason’s inhuman jumping and saw his eyes change colors. Mason finally told Tyler the whole truth: the Lockwoods carried the werewolf curse in their bloodline, but the only way to trigger it was to kill someone (either on purpose or by accident). Jeremy figured out the truth about Tyler, and when he confronted Tyler they end up bonding. It was clear Tyler had been craving someone to talk once Mason disappeared (a.k.a. was killed by Damon) — an unlikely friendship started to form.
Unfortunately, Tyler ended up triggering the werewolf curse. At the Masquerade Ball, Tyler drank heavily with Matt and Sarah, but Matt had been compelled to attack Tyler until Tyler killed him (Katherine needed a werewolf for a ritual). Matt started fighting Tyler and Caroline broke up the fight by knocking him unconscious. Turns out, Katherine also compelled Sarah to do the same thing if Matt failed, and Sarah stabbed Tyler in the shoulder. Tyler pushed her away too hard and she hit her head on the edge of the desk and died. He triggered the curse and was now a werewolf.
Thanks to Caroline's inhuman strength and the fact that she was the first to notice Tyler's injuries had already healed, Tyler suspected that Caroline was also a werewolf. When he confronted her, she revealed that she was a vampire (although she lied and said that she was the only vampire in town). Her help ushering him through his first days as a supernatural creature (much like Stefan did for her) was the beginning of Tyler and Caroline’s friendship, another a major turning point for Tyler’s character.
The thought of Tyler’s first transition during the full moon scared him so much that he turned to Caroline for help. She stayed with him throughout the entire painful process, and the next morning, when she held him and they both cried, is when Tyler Lockwood officially became a different person. Gone was the bully from the first season — he'd changed physically but also emotionally.
Unsurprisingly after such close interaction, Tyler developed feelings for Caroline. He also thought that Caroline felt the same way about him because she stayed with him throughout his entire transformation even though she knew one bite from a werewolf could kill a vampire. They kissed, but Caroline ran away.
Jules, an old friend of Mason’s, came looking for him in Mystic Falls. Tyler was shocked when she revealed that she was also a werewolf, and that there was a whole pack he could join. But she also revealed that Caroline lied to Tyler — she wasn't the only vampire in town. When Jules told Tyler that Caroline was a part of the group of vampires that killed Mason, he felt so betrayed that when Caroline was kidnapped and tortured by the pack of werewolves, he hesitated to help her. When he finally did free her, she broke off their friendship.
Tyler then aligned himself fully with the werewolves who wanted to break the sun and the moon curse so they never had to transform again. The other wolves didn’t tell him that in order to break the curse, the Petrova doppelganger, a.k.a. Elena, had to die, and when Stefan revealed that to Tyler, he decided to leave Mystic Falls for good. He left a card for his mother and said goodbye to Matt, admitting that he fell for Caroline, but he didn't deserve her and Matt did. He then went to Caroline's house, but just caught a glimpse of her before leaving Mystic Falls with Jules.
When Tyler got a call from his mother saying she had an accident and was in the hospital, he returned to Mystic Falls. It turns out Original vampire Klaus engineered the accident so Tyler would return, and both Tyler and Caroline were kidnapped to be sacrificed in the ritual to unleash Klaus’s dormant werewolf side. Caroline also revealed to Tyler that the curse of the sun and the moon was fake, a lie perpetuated by the Original vampires to motivate both werewolves and vampires to find the components of the ritual to help Klaus. Damon saved Caroline who freed Tyler, but since it was a full moon he transformed into a wolf. Matt broke up with Caroline because he found out that she was a vampire, and Tyler comforted her as she nursed him after being shot by Matt. She made Tyler promise never to leave her again, and their friendship deepened.
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Season 3: Tyler Becomes Selfless
After spending the summer together as friends, Tyler and Caroline finally gave in to their intense chemistry and slept together in the season premiere. When Caroline tried sneaking out afterward, Carol caught her and knocked her out with vervain. Carol also spiked Tyler's coffee with vervain to see if he was a vampire, and told him to stay away from Caroline. Tyler realized his mother never knew about the Lockwood curse, so he transformed right in front of her. Though she was shocked, Carol understood her son a little better and helped Tyler and Sheriff Forbes rescue Caroline from her anti-vampire dad.
Things took a turn for the worse when Klaus turned Tyler into his first successful vampire/werewolf hybrid, and as a result, Tyler was sire bonded to Klaus. Klaus’s sister Rebekah manipulated Tyler into giving in to being a hybrid, and he started to revert back to being Season 1 douchey Tyler. The sire bond meant he hd to do anything Klaus told him without question, including convincing Jeremy to remove his vervain bracelet so he could be compelled to kill himself. Jeremy was saved, but he yelled at Tyler to remember that Klaus was not a good person and he should question what Klaus told him do instead of blindly obeying. Tyler began to doubt his unquestioning faith in Klaus.
Tyler later confronted Klaus about making Jeremy take off his vervain bracelet, saying he wouldn't be Klaus’s slave. Klaus then proved his alpha male status by making Tyler bite Caroline, ensuring she would die without the cure of Klaus’s blood. Klaus healed Caroline, and Tyler realized he needed to break the sire bond in order to live his life and protect the people he loved. Tyler was now become as selfless as any of the other characters on TVD.
Tyler turned to Caroline’s father for help in breaking his sire bond. In order to not feel indebted to Klaus, Tyler had to transform into a werewolf over and over until the process wasn’t painful anymore. He left Mystic Falls again, and he promised Caroline he would return when he no longer felt sired.
After turning hundreds of times in the Appalachian mountains with the help of werewolf Hayley, Tyler returned to Mystic Falls and pretended to still be sired to Klaus. However, when he found out Klaus had been trying to move in on Caroline, he got furious and showed up to the decade dance to prove to her that he would not go anywhere and they were officially together.
When Alaric was changed into an Original vampire/vampire hunter, he revealed Tyler as a hybrid and Caroline as a vampire to the town’s council, forcing the two star-crossed lovers to leave town. Before they could go, Klaus possessed Tyler's body and Tyler's fate was left unknown.
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Season 4: Tyler Becomes a True Leader
After pretending to be Tyler, Klaus forced Bonnie to perform a spell returning him to his own body and leaving Tyler alive and well.
When a member of The Five, a group of highly skilled vampire hunters, came to Mystic Falls, Tyler again showed how much he had grown and selflessly sacrificed himself so he could distract the hunter while his friends got to safety. Since he was a hybrid, the special bullets the hunter used wouldn’t kill him.
Klaus ordered the rest of his hybrids to stay in Mystic Falls and protect Tyler, and Hayley joined them. Klaus assumed that Hayley and Tyler slept together, and they let him think that while they actually worked together to free the rest of the hybrids from their sire bonds. Tyler became the Alpha of their pack, finally the leader he was destined to be.
Tyler and Hayley came up with a plan to dessicate Klaus and bury him, thereby destroying him without killing him – if Klaus truly died, so would his entire vampire line, including Stefan, Damon, Elena, Caroline, and Tyler himself – but Hayley betrayed him and told Klaus about the unsired hybrids. Hayley was working with Professor Shane all along as a way to get information on her real parents, while Shane got the sacrifice of 12 unsired hybrids he needed. Klaus brutally murdered all the hybrids and then drowned Carol Lockwood, causing Tyler to blame himself for her death and the deaths of his friends thanks to his failed revolution.
While everyone was out looking for the vampire cure, Bonnie trapped Klaus in the Gilbert house with a spell. Tyler gloated to Klaus about how he'd ram the cure down Klaus’s throat and then kill him, but when everyone found out there was only one dose of the cure, and it was intended for the ultra-evil ancient undead Silas, Tyler realized Klaus would never let him live.
Caroline convinced Klaus to give Tyler at least a head start before pursuing him in a murderous rage, and Tyler prepared to leave Mystic Falls forever. He will spend the rest of his immortal life on the run from Klaus, until something else catches Klaus’s attention or they figure out a way to kill Klaus without killing his entire sire line. Tyler's tearful goodbye with Caroline on the porch was his last scene, a perfect, touching tribute to the selfless and brave man Tyler became. Compared to the d-bag he was in Season 1, Season 4 Tyler seems a whole new person.
We will miss you, Tyler Lockwood. Stay out of trouble, wherever you may go, and hurry back to Mystic Falls once Klaus heads to New Orleans, maybe?
Leave your proclamations of undying love or overwhelming sadness in the comments below. Will you miss Tyler as much as we will?
Follow Sydney on Twitter: @SydneyBucksbaum
[Photo Credit: The CW]
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It's official: The entire surviving family of Original vampires will star in The Vampire Diaries spin-off series, The Originals. Claire Holt has just been cast as the fourth lead in the potential new series. She will reprise her TVD role Rebekah, the vampire sister of Elijah (Daniel Gillies) and Klaus (Joseph Morgan), as well as werewolf Haley (Phoebe Tonkin). These three Originals siblings are the only Originals left alive in present day.
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Written by TVD co-creator/executive producer Julie Plec, The Originals centers on the Original family of vampires, as Klaus returns to the supernatural melting pot that is the French Quarter of New Orleans — a town he helped build centuries ago — and is reunited with his diabolical former protégé Marcel (Charles Michael Davis). The backdoor pilot will air as an episode of TVD on April 25.
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Now that Holt is set for the spin-off, does that mean she's leaving TVD for good, along with the entire Original family? What does that mean for Stefan (Paul Wesley), who just recently resumed a relationship with her? And will Rebekah be a vampire on the spin-off series, or will the search for the cure for vampirism succeed on TVD, making her human? One thing is for sure: Things have suddenly become even more unsettled in Mystic Falls.
Follow Sydney on Twitter: @SydneyBucksbaum
[Photo Credit: Bob Mahoney/The CW]
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Two questions immediately came to mind following "A View to a Kill," the Vampire Diaries episode that saw the blossoming of a relationship (Stefan and Rebekah), the death of an Original (Kol...zzzz), Bonnie being badass (finally!), and the completion of the Hunter's mark. First: HI INTERNET PLEASE CAN YOU MAKE A GIF OF JEREMY RIPPING HIS SHIRT OFF? K THX. Second: Is Evil Klaus back? Are we supposed to hate that dimpled smile again!?
Last things first: Despite some major complications, Jeremy followed through with Elena's plan to kill Kol and his stupid accent. That had three major repercussions. First, although Klaus was not on Kol's side in this particular instance, he is MAJORLY pissed that the Mystic Falls crew would conspire to kill his brother. Why is he so surprised by that?! Second, Damon was free to leave his cell because his compulsion to kill Jeremy had passed. Third, and best of all, the hunter's mark was completed, causing Jeremy to rip off his shirt in a fit of energy. As of right now, the Internet hasn't gifted us with a continuous GIF of this great moment, but it's only a matter of time. You never let us down, Internet.
Other happy things happened this week too, like Rebekah finally getting her ass to a school dance, even if it was just her and Stefan drinking illicit teacher's lounge booze to classic '80s tunes. "I hope you like The Cure," joked Funny, Flirty Stefan. (I like this Stefan almost as much as Ripper Stefan.) "Funny," shot back Fun, Flirty Rebekah. (I like this Rebekah because she gets daggered a lot and I imagine that leaves her filled with rage most of the time.) Of course, it didn't exactly end happily once she realized Stefan wanted to kill her brother. As he pointed out, there is still a familial bond among the Originals: "They may be dysfunctional bickering lunatics, but they stick together no matter what." But still, at least girlfriend got to dance to "Wanted Dead or Alive" in a school gym, as all people should have the opportunity to do at least once in their lives. We learned that she's on board to find the cure so she can live a normal, human life. She just wants to be loved! We love you, Rebekah. Never leave us.
Then, of course, there was the whole Kol dying thing, which caused Klaus to go back to being evil. Listen — he was brought in as the biggest of all big bads, yet here he is two seasons later trying to romance one of the show's best, most beloved characters (Caroline, duh, who was MIA even though it's preposterous to think that she would ever consider peacing out during the planning of a decade dance). Let's be honest, guys — we've put up with it because goddamn is Joseph Morgan attractive and those dimples are hard to say no to. But things are much more interesting/make much more sense when he's the bad guy. Plus, with all this talk of New Orleans and all of this "falling out of favor with the Mystic Falls crew" business, it's setting up his exit (to his own spinoff) quite nicely.
Klaus and Damon had a very interesting conversation about evil, about how Elena has seemingly forgiven Damon for all of the crappy things he's done and how Klaus can't get Caroline to look past all of his murderin' and other assorted evils. Damon was different, he explained, because he did all of his terrible things for a reason other than general dickishness. "If you're going to be bad, be bad with a purpose. Otherwise you're not worth forgiving," he said, wisely. Which is why it was kind of nice at the end of the episode when Klaus got mean again. He can't redeem himself in the eyes of anyone in Mystic Falls, so he basically needs to GTFO.
Unexpectedly, though, it was Bonnie who might've had the biggest week. (Unexpected because, well, it's Bonnie.) Her dad is proving to be both a competent parent and a competent mayor (the likes of Mystic Falls has never seen before!). He's spiked the town's water supply with vervain, and enforced a curfew to keep the kidz off the streetz. Mystic Falls seems pretty low on non-supernatural crime, so obviously this is all vampire/werewolf/witch-related.
Her dad threatened a family sit-down, but little did Bonnie realize that he meant he'd invited her vampire mom, too. They needed to talk about her dark — sorry, expression — magic before she got too Dark Willow for her own good. "I need it," Bonnie shouted. (She can stop any time she wants, though.) She wants to find the cure to help her mom. "I'm not the one that needs to be saved — you are," her mom responds. Basically, it wasn't a successful family meeting.
Oh by the way, Elena knows that Stefan and Rebekah are doin' it. Drama! As Damon would say (about something else completely different), "here we go!"
What did you think of the episode?
Follow Jean on Twitter @hijean
[PHOTO CREDIT: The CW]
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We've come to expect a certain level of WTF-ness from The Vampire Diaries, which it so reliably delivers. So even though we knew going in that the next few episodes would be very mythology-heavy, it was a little startling to realize there would not be a major OMG moment in season 4, episode 10, "After School Special." A guy did come back from the dead, but that seems to happen like every other week in Mystic Falls. Maybe we're just getting greedy — or at least I am — because we did get a ton of Rebekah being a super badass and a cute tribute to The Breakfast Club. Nothing to complain about, really.
Starting from the beginning: It's been more than a year since I last recapped an episode of TVD. How are we feeling about this whole opening montage thing? It's a little cheesy, but in a fun, nostalgic way. Plus, it's incredibly helpful when it's been a month since the last new episode. It's no diary-writing voiceover (and that's a good thing), so I vote win.
Bonnie's dad has come back to town to become the newest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher mayor. Why was he dumb enough to say yes after six people before him declined the job? We didn't find out this week, but we do know he's in on the supernatural conspiracy with Sheriff Forbes.
Damon, Matt, and Jeremy spent their episode being sweaty and fighting each other in an attempt to buff Jeremy up before he slaughters more vampires (to reveal more of his hunter's mark). Tank top karate Jeremy is definitely the best iteration of Elena's lil bro so far. And Matt was in a tank top too, so I'm assuming they started a club where they do bicep curls together and eat pizza, like the Ninja Turtles but at a lake house instead of a sewer. No sleeves allowed.
The main story this week revolved around newly un-daggered Rebekah, who rounded up Elena, Stefan, Tyler, Caroline, and Creepy Professor Shane and compelled them to hang out in the library so she could figure out what the heck was going on and how to get to the vampirism cure, and also to torture them because this is like the millionth time she's been daggered. Girlfriend still hasn't been to a dance. How will she ever learn that they're really awkward occasions with lame DJs that eventually devolve into groups of girls crying in the bathroom for no reason? Kol came back to help her, and she compelled April to be her lapdog, telling her the truth about all the town's supernatural goings-on. How does Matt go seasons without finding out and this bitch knows the truth after a few episodes? This has been your gentle reminder that April is still a thing. For now.
Rebekah didn't realize that Elena and Stefan broke up, but she was delighted to find out and even more delighted to discover that Elena had gotten together with Damon afterwards. "My brother slept with Elena. Kind of puts a damper on things," said pouty Stefan. Rebekah also compelled Elena to confess why she slept with Damon. Turns out, she loves him! And she thinks Stefan's boring. Way harsh, Tai.
Oh! Before everyone was corralled into the library, Shane gave Bonnie a gift. "It's beautiful," she gushed. "It's human bone!" he replied, creepily, because he is creepy and that is a very creepy gift to give someone!
Since Rebekah couldn't compel Shane, she tortured some information out of him. "Silas will raise the dead. He will bring back every last soul who died on his behalf," said Creepy Shane, creepily. Then he died, but Bonnie had accidentally tied him to April in some sort of protective spell (she almost died too — we were so close), so he came back to life, though it is unclear how. Vampire blood? Crazy ring? Evil voodoo magic?
In the end, just before releasing everyone, Rebekah offered to erase all of Stefan's memories of Elena, and he accepted the offer without much hesitation. But since Rebekah was just messing with him, she totally didn't do it. But Stefan did call her later and offer to team up so they can search for the cure together. Elena called Damon, who'd teamed up with Klaus to search for the cure, to tell him that she loved him. He seemed excited, but obviously he's still wary of everything now that he knows about the sire bond.
What did you think of the episode? Too much exposition and not enough action? Or a perfectly fine balance of action and explanation and I should stop being so greedy and expecting glorious mass murder set to gorgeous Christmas music in every episode?
Follow Jean on Twitter @hijean
[PHOTO CREDIT: Bob Mahoney/The CW]
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Forget that the latest adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's sweeping romance novel comes from the man who brought us the slick-but-stuffy Pride and Prejudice and Atonement. Every frame of director Joe Wright's Anna Karenina is a wonder to behold overflowing with visual spectacle and roaring performances. Keira Knightley Jude Law Aaron Taylor-Johnson and the rest of the cast fit perfectly in the high drama epic but it's really Wright's playground. Following Hanna an artful spin on the action movie Wright returns to the period drama but injects it with dazzling daring choices. A book like Anna Karenina could once fit in reality but its larger-than-life legacy precedes it. Wright acknowledges that from frame one approaching the film like a grand ballet or opera where grand gestures broad emotions and overt theatrics are commonplace. That vision clicks transforming Anna Karenina into an exhilarating moviegoing experience.
The storyline of Anna Karenina isn't far off from a daytime soap: It's 1874 and Anna (Knightley) is floating through existence as the wife of influential government player Karenin (Law). But when her brother Oblonsky (Matthew Macfadyen) summons her to Moscow to save his marriage Anna's entire world is shaken up. She meets Vronsky (Taylor-Johnson) a cavalry hunk who finds himself smitten with the taken lady. She's in the same boat: The two strike up a flirtatious relationship that evolves into one of sexual passion. A scandalous affair would incite trouble in the preset day but in the 19th century it's the ultimate crime. Quickly Anna's life comes crumbling down.
The intertwining melodrama of Anna Karenina earned the novel its classic status but Wright uses the material as a launching pad for imagination rather than a tome to translate to screen. Many of the scenes are staged in a theater creating an instant awareness of the production. Sets shift and are reconstructed into new rooms; actors costume change in the span of single shots; action sequences like a thrilling horse race are conducted on stage with special effects you might see on Broadway. Wright works this sort of stylization in the other direction too; a character could walk an empty stage open a door and suddenly be on a snow-covered hill. Anna Karenina isn't the first film to use the effect but in Wright's hands it's exhilarating.
The movie is Wright's third collaboration with Knightley and easily their most successful. Knightley never struggles to stay on the same page as the heightened material whether she's nailing a dance sequence or breaking down in a flood of tears. Casting an ensemble around Knightley is no easy task but Taylor-Johnson gives his best work yet as the debonair love interest and Macfadyen steals the show with moments of physical comedy.
We have expectations of the texture and structure of period romances. Anna Karenina defies them. Masterpiece Theater it is not.

"Sorry if my snoring bothered you."
Those are not the first words I'd expect out of the mouth of someone who got up on a Friday morning to catch the 10:30 AM screening of a new movie but that is more or less what the fellow who'd been sitting behind me said as I passed him on my way out. I'd heard him snoring over the constant rat-a-tat-tat of bullets and butt-kicking being doled out by Milla Jovovich et al in this latest iteration of the never-ending Resident Evil series (this time in IMAX 3D) but I figured maybe I was hearing things. Nope he was asleep.
I used to play Resident Evil on my ancient PlayStation when it first came out. It scared the crap out of me. I enjoyed the first two movies — hey they included the skinless zombie dogs! — but I lost interest soon after that. How many times can you make the zombie apocalypse exciting? How many different skintight outfits can Jovovich wear while killing grotesque creatures who shoot evil grasping tentacles out of their mouths? Why should we care about all the blood and guts when we know the people we're supposed to be emotionally invested in will never die? We don't.
Try as he might there are only so many ways for writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson to give the Resident Evil series fresh new layers for each new movie. The Umbrella Corporation is the big bad. They were playing with biological weapons and somehow there was an accident that let one of the viruses loose... and boom you've got a zombie apocalypse on your hands. Our heroine is Alice played by Milla Jovovich and there is a rotating cast of characters who help her fight the good fight against the hordes of brain-eaters and whatever is left of the Umbrella Corporation that's now after her. There are some parallels to the video game series but Paul W.S. Anderson (a gamer himself) has taken lots of liberties with the basic plot over the years. While Anderson's flashy style is especially suited to these types of movies there's not enough plot to make it work.
We don't go to video game movies for plot of course but there has to be something to hold onto; otherwise why would we care if our protagonist were in danger? Anderson tries some neat tricks to snap us back to attention like bringing back characters that were killed in previous movies and throwing in a cloning subplot that calls into question some of the characters' true identities but it's still hard to get worked up about anything onscreen. However it ultimately sidesteps any deeper ideas that might take our attention away from all the guns. And there are so many guns and explosions and elegant butt-kickings doled out by Milla and her pals (or former pals in the case of Michelle Rodriguez's character Rain) that they blend together.
It is especially difficult to work up any interest in the story because it's a franchise and no matter how many times the stars or director might say they're not that interested in doing another everyone is just waiting to see how much money this will make before deciding to go forward. There is no question how franchise movies will end; there will be no derring-do on the part of the writer or director to actually kill off a beloved character permanently. At one point it seemed like Anderson was going to pull the old "And then she woke up!" trick which would have been bold both because it's such a hackneyed idea that it would make writing professors' heads explode all over the world but also because it would have required Anderson to play in a different universe and expand his repertoire a bit. Alas like Alice and Anderson himself we just can't seem to escape this rabbit hole.

Widening the thematic scope without sacrificing too much of the claustrophobia that made the original 1979 Alien universally spooky Prometheus takes the trophy for this summer's most adult-oriented blockbuster entertainment. The movie will leave your mouth agape for its entire runtime first with its majestic exploration of an alien planet and conjectures on the origins of the human race second with its gross-out body horror that leaves no spilled gut to the imagination. Thin characters feel more like pawns in Scott's sci-fi prequel but stunning visuals shocking turns and grand questions more than make up for the shallow ensemble. "Epic" comes in many forms. Prometheus sports all of them.
Based on their discovery of a series of cave drawings all sharing a similar painted design Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie (Logan Marshall-Green) are recruited by Weyland to head a mission to another planet one they believe holds the answers to the creation of life on Earth. Along for the journey are Vickers (Charlize Theron) the ruthless Weyland proxy Janek (Idris Elba) a blue collar captain a slew of faceless scientists and David (Michael Fassbender) HAL 9000-esque resident android who awakens the crew of spaceship Prometheus when they arrive to their destination. Immediately upon descent there's a discovery: a giant mound that's anything but natural. The crew immediately prepares to scope out the scene zipping up high-tech spacesuits jumping in futuristic humvees and heading out to the site. What they discover are the awe-inspiring creations of another race. What they bring back to the ship is what they realize may kill their own.
The first half of Prometheus could be easily mistaken for Steven Spielberg's Alien a sense of wonder glowing from every frame not too unlike Close Encounters. Scott takes full advantage of his fictional settings and imbues them with a reality that makes them even more tantalizing. He shoots the vistas of space and the alien planet like National Geographic porn and savors the interior moments on board the Prometheus full of hologram maps sleeping pods and do-it-yourself surgery modules with the same attention. Prometheus is beautiful shot in immersive 3D that never dampers Dariusz Wolski's sharp photography. Scott's direction seems less interested in the run-or-die scenario set up in the latter half of the film but the film maintains tension and mood from beginning to end. It all just gets a bit…bloodier.
Jon Spaihts' and Damon Lindelof's script doesn't do the performers any favors shuffling them to and fro between the ship and the alien construction without much room for development. Reveals are shoehorned in without much setup (one involving Theron's Vickers that's shockingly mishandled) but for the most part the ensemble is ready to chomp into the script's bigger picture conceits. Rapace is a physical performer capable of pulling off a grisly scene involving an alien some sharp objects and a painful procedure (sure to be the scene of the blockbuster season. Among the rest of the crew Fassbender's David stands out as the film's revelatory performance delivering a digestible ambiguity to his mechanical man that playfully toys with expectations from his first entrance. The creature effects in Prometheus will wow you but even Fassbender's smallest gesture can send the mind spinning. The power of his smile packs more of a punch than any facehugger.
Much like Lindelof's Lost Prometheus aims to explore the idea of asking questions and seeking answers and on Scott's scale it's a tremendous unexpected ride. A few ideas introduced to spur action fall to the way side in the logic department but with a clear mission and end point Prometheus works as a sweeping sci-fi that doesn't require choppy editing or endless explosions to keep us on the edge of our seats. Prometheus isn't too far off from the Alien xenomorphs: born from existing DNA of another creature the movie breaks out as its own beast. And it's wilder than ever.
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I've been working for quite a while to come up with a funny enough joke to lead into the particularly noteworthy guest casting on the upcoming Glee Christmas episode, but nothing I think of is nearly as good as the news itself: Chewbacca—Han Solo's Wookiee copilot in the Star Wars universe—will be coming to McKinley High. How can you trivialize the most wonderful casting in a musical dramedy with mere wordplay? Sure, I could play off a possible romance with Jane Lynch's character, dubbing the duo Suebacca. As it is a Christmas episode, I might allude to leaving Wookiees and milk out for Santa Claus. But let's put all that treachery aside in favor of discussing what role Chewbacca will play at McKinley High. Glee star Matthew Morrison revealed that Chewbacca will exist in a within-the-episode special that pays homage to the Star Wars Christmas special of 1978. Glee's Christmas episode will air next Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox. Catch tonight's new Glee, "Hold on to Sixteen," which brings back good ol' Trouty Mouth (Chord Overstreet). -THR
No one fights like Sage Brocklebank, douses lights like Sage Brockleback...in a wrestling match, nobody bites like—yeah, just doesn't have the same ring to it. But the ABC series Once Upon a Time will see Brocklebank take on the role of the man who once earned these accolades in a much more rhythmic way: Gaston, the brawny dufus antagonist from Beauty and the Beast. Once seems to be working on collecting a handful of Beauty and the Beast characters; they've already cast LOST's impeccable Emilie de Ravin as Belle, and now Psych's Brocklebank will play her nefarious suitor. Witness this tale as old as time on Once on Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. -EW
Speaking of LOST, someone much darker than the glowing young Claire (I choose to remember her as she was in the first half of the series) will be making a cameo on another fairy tale-themed show: Titus Welliver, who terrorized the island as the Man in Black, will be bringing his supernatural abilities to the NBC series Grimm. Welliver did his share of shapeshifting back in his beachside days, and apparently, he's feeling a bit nostalgic: Welliver's Grimm character, Farley Holt, will have the power to transform into a golden eagle. At least he's sticking to solid states of matter this time around. Grimm airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. -Zap2it
TNT is making some serious plans for the final episode of its long-running series The Closer. In the most poetic fashion possible, Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) will find herself pit against her arch nemesis—the dishonest attorney and suspected rapist Philip Stroh, played by Billy Burke of The Twilight Saga films. Burke will find himself back on the series when a serial killer investigation involves both Brenda and Stroh, set opposed to each other in one final, epic, and likely super-cathartic battle. The Closer's series finale will air sometime in the summer of 2012. Watch the remaining three episodes of The Closer's "mini-season" on the next three consecutive Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on TNT. -TVLine

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Claire Holt's success in the teen fantasy realm in her native Australia was the perfect jumping off point to a promising career in America. She first made waves with a starring role on the hit series "H20: Just Add Water" (Network 10, 2006-2010), as one of three teenaged girls who led double lives as mermaids. She followed it up with a featured role in "Mean Girls 2" (ABC Family, 2011), as a not-so-bright, promiscuous teenager, before going on to land a recurring role on the teen drama "Pretty Little Liars" (ABC Family, 2010- ), as the loyal friend of a high school student with dark, possibly murderous, secrets. Holt then landed an even juicier role on the supernatural drama "The Vampire Diaries" (The CW, 2009- ). Holt's portrayal of beautiful and manipulative "Original" vampire Rebekah was exactly the edge she needed to gain a whole new fan base and set her on a path to becoming one of Hollywood's fastest rising stars.